We could spend all day explaining why stupid people's opinions from other parts of the Internet are incredibly dumb and plain wrong, but frankly that's not a very good use of anyone's time. Hell, it could be its own thread without problem with how much idiocy gets thrown around!

Thus I decided to create a thread dedicated to it. Here's another post written by Aazealh about the same subject:

For the record, there was no negativity on this forum. It's important to understand that the people who complained about the sea journey were morons. Morons have complained about the series for as long as it has existed. They complained about volume 24 and the expansion of magic in the series. They complained about the Berserk's armor. They endlessly complained about Vritannis and the Kushans' invasion, ceaselessly asking "when will they get on the damn boat!". And predictably, when the party embarked on the Sea Horse towards Elfhelm, those same idiots immediately complained about how the trip took too long. Which is not true, by the way, it didn't take too long. The voyage was pretty fucking cool all things considered, and the bulk of it was actually spent on land, investigating the Sea God's island. Ten years from now you'll find people telling you that's their favorite part of the series. Anyway, the morons also complained about Fantasia and Falconia, and now they're no doubt complaining about Elfhelm.

What you should understand is that those who couldn't enjoy the journey will also not enjoy the destination. They're the same people who just wanted Guts to leave Casca somewhere and for his companions to die. They're those who said he would use the beherit to become an apostle so he could better fight Zodd. They're those who thought Casca would join Griffith so that Guts would be extra-betrayed and extra-angry. What we all feel so strongly about, the imminent return of a beloved character, probably just bores them. They don't see why it's so important, nor how strongly it will impact the story. They surely have stupid expectations for it that will, as per usual, not be met. And cause more complaining.

In short, they're the ones who don't get it. They never did and they never will. So feel free to enjoy this moment, but do not bother trying to relate it to those complaints or to rationalize them. You'll just be disappointed.

How would you explain this phenomenon? Is it unique to this fandom? I've been following Berserk for years and frankly (but I may be wrong) SK.net seems to be a safe haven compared to the other websites and forums (which are, well, basically, "cesspools").

Berserk is without a doubt one of the most sophisticated graphic novels ever created. I'm not saying it requires a PhD in Quantum mechanics to understand, but it's aimed at an adult audience. To properly enjoy it, one ought to be relatively mature and thoughtful, to be worldly-wise and at least somewhat knowledgeable in the humanities. Beyond that, it needs to be read thoroughly, attentively and considerately.

But Berserk is also an action manga, and an exceptional one at that. It contains some of the best fights and struggles of the entire medium. That aspect of it, along with its grisly realism, attracts a certain crowd of online readers. These people's consumption of the story takes place through online piracy, and they read the entire manga in a matter of hours. They ingurgitate it indiscriminatingly alongside dozens of other series. The versions they read are badly translated, but they don't care so long as it's free. Besides, they're not here for the dialogue, but because someone online promised them "shock and gore".

That is how I explain this phenomenon. These folks are the complainers, the guys who don't get it and don't want to get it. They don't care about story development or characters or world building. What they want is shock and gore and the kind of things Rob Liefeld thought were cool in the nineties. Oh, and they want them now, right this instant.

The simple answer is that those who have stuck around here truly love the series. Adding to that, Miura is a smart enough writer to keep us interested and guessing over close to 2 decades. That's a pretty incredible feat in and of itself, given how time and life can not only change people's tastes, but also the space in their lives reserved for following an irregularly released episodic series.

Even with that, I don't think SKnet would still be around if we hadn't adopted a more strict guiding principle than other sites. Having seen how every other Berserk community has risen, fallen and disappeared, I really wouldn't have it any other way. Even from the very beginning, I wanted a place where I could expand my understanding of the series, which usually came from talking about Berserk with people who had been reading it for a while. Even now, that's why this forum exists.

SK.net seems to be a safe haven compared to the other websites and forums (which are, well, basically, "cesspools").

I think what makes SKnet different is that we don't really entertain what we perceive as false notions. We try to correct people when we see these things -- politely at first. This is an important principle to us because if you let groundless notions persist, they can muddy the waters of people's understanding of the series. We see it to this day ("Guts is outside causality because he was born from a corpse/mom was raped by an apostle" seems to be a popular notion these days), though there's admittedly less of it, I think, than in years past. Our strict adherence to facts and plausibility of ideas really angers some people.

But apart from simply being inflamed by a rejected idea, I think friction often arises because people want to be involved in online forums for different reasons. Some may just be looking for a place to hang out with other fans who also happen to like the series they do, and float different ideas that they have. But often this doesn't come from a place of communally building their knowledge and understanding of the series. They are just compelled to voice their thoughts, like it's diarrhea they have to get out now now now. And when we complain that they just shit all over the house, they're angered we don't appreciate the fine aroma.

How would you explain this phenomenon? Is it unique to this fandom? I've been following Berserk for years and frankly (but I may be wrong) SK.net seems to be a safe haven compared to the other websites and forums (which are, well, basically, "cesspools").

I can't add much more than what Aaz so eloquently described.

But I think it can simply be summarized as this: those people ignore the themes and context of the story, ignoring what Miura is trying to get at. They treat the story as what they want it to be, rather than what it is.

I remember encountering one individual who said (and I paraphrase) "Berserk used to be this great political low fantasy [lol], and then it became just a monster hunting story". Funny how he ignored that Berserk started off as a "monster-hunting" story in the first place and that the Golden Age arc was (to put it simplistically) an explanation of how that business started out.

I can't tell you the number of false claims (goes downhill after Golden Age, Miura doesn't care about his work anymore, etc.) that I used to see before I picked up the manga. I know them to be false now that I've read the whole thing for myself.

And no, this isn't unique to Berserk. In fact, it seems to me that all great works of art tend to be misunderstood by no small quantities of people over time. I've witnessed this with a lot of works.

Some fandoms are worse than others though, and Berserk's fandom is unfortunately plagued by a vocal portion who simply don't know what the hell they're talking about. They're quite awful, really.

SK is a God-send for us Berserk fans. I'm grateful it exists, otherwise we'd be stuck talking to a lot of gore-obsessed readers and Griffith apologists.

Logged

"There are no pacts between men and lions. Wolves and lambs cannot enjoy a meeting of the minds." ~ Achilles, the Iliad of Homer